Football Articles - Stadiums and Clubs Stats, Facts and Trivia

Football is a funny old game full of clichés, bizzare terminologies and with some down right silly rules. This is the page where you can find answers to all of those questions that might arise in a chat down the pub. We've got key facts and trivia on things like stadiums firsts (first stand, floodlights, artificial pitch, etc), biggest grounds, most expensive stadia, pitch sizes, football mascots and all sorts of other records and stats.

We also cover club milestorenes from signing records to most successful clubs, and much more. At Football-Stadiums.co.uk our footy boffins will also tell you about all kinds of interesting features, from why you can't broadcast at 3pm kick off to transfer rules, match fixing and even the origins of football itself. Have a browse of our articles, at the very least they will probably help you answer some quiz questions.

Football Records, Achievements and Milestones

Never have an argument again about who are the most successful teams in England. Man United have won the most Leagues but Liverpool still have more major trophies, the top two are not going to be caught any time soon either.

There is little sentiment in the modern game and players are now expected to move several times in their careers. There are however some spectacular players that have only played for one club through their footballing lives.

From James Vaughan at number ten making his début for Everton ages 16 and 297 days to Matthew Briggs, the current record holder, aged 16 years and 65 days old when he made his début for Fulham in May 2007.

It's mainly the goalies that make up the top ten oldest, they have it easy standing between the stick all day don't they? Although Teddy Sheringham does make it in there too. From Edwin van der Sar to John Burridge see our top ten oldest list.

See a comprehensive list of all the record goalscorers in from England as well as a top 10 run down of the the greatest goal scorers from England's top division. We also look at goalscorers then vs now as well as other records and trivia.

Find the record appearance player at all English clubs as well as top teams form around the world. Former England goalkeeper Peter Shilton will take some beating for years to come with 1005 league appearances across 32 seasons.

Biggest, Largest and Iconic Stadiums

Surprisingly you probably won't have heard of many of the ten biggest football grounds in the world. North Korea claim to have the largest with stadiums from Malaysia, Indonesia and Iran also making the list.

Footy grounds in the UK hit a low in the 1980's but since the investment brought by the FA and the Premier League we can now boast some of the biggest and most well equipt stadiums in the world, from Wembley to the Olympic Stadium.

Europe is the richest continent on earth and football the main sport. As you would expect it is the footballing giants Germany, England and Spain that domiante the list of the largest football stadiums in Europe.

We all have our own list of the best and most iconic stadiums in the world although we think you will agree with the grounds in our list on the whole. Read about the stadiums that we think are that little bit extra special in world football.

Football Stadiums Facts and Trivia

A guide to the most famous multi-club cities in England, Scotland and the rest of Europe. Although London tops the charts for the most professional teams there are places with closer teams, more clubs per head, more honours and much bigger rivalries.

The majority of football stadiums saw higher attendances in the past but is it fair to compare these with the stadiums we have now? We discuss past, present and future attendance, what has affected crowd levels, records, averages and more.

It can feel like a personal assault when your much loved club decides to name a new or existing stadium after an airline, bank or brand of insurance. Unfortunately this is the way in the financially driven game of modern football. Find out where sponsorship came from and where it might end up.

The idea of top flight clubs sharing grounds in Britain has never really caught on, abroad however, and especially in Italy, there are lots of high profile clubs and stadiums that share grounds. See a list of stadium sharing football clubs along with famous examples from the past and present.

Long gone are the muddy bald pitches of the the 1970's, these days wherever you go from the Premier League to the League Two clubs play on immaculate surfaces. We tell you all about the history of football pitches and all about the new grass types available.

It's hard to maintain world class football pitches if you rely on the weather alone. We've all seen the sprinklers turned on before the match and at half time but is down to the ground staff or the manger? Are sprinklers used as part of the tactics of modern football?

Why do many football clubs play games behind closed doors? Most of the time this has nothing to do with disciplinary action but instead these games are used as a means for clubs to play matches away from prying eyes and the media, behind closed doors friendlies are very common.

Although we tend to associate one stadium with one club there are a multitude of examples where grounds have hosted numerous teams. We look at the top ten stadiums that have hosted the most football teams in their history. From England and around the world.

Having a pie and bovril at the match used to be an important part of the day. How have refreshments at football stadiums changed over the years and how do they vary around the world? How much does it cost these days for a pie and a cup of tea at your club?

Long gone are the days that big stadiums made most of their money from match day ticket sales. These days stadiums are more diverse than ever with naming rights, concerts, tours, museums and hospitality that can generate millions in revenue.

From a purely visual point of view the best pace to sit is in a side stand, not too high and as close to the half-way line as possible. Many of course would disagree, speak to anyone who sits on Liverpool's Kop for example. We look at the where to sit in stadiums and why to sit there.

Football stadiums are changing and are now built as multi-purpose technological venues with bespoke architecture and quirky features. The future of football stadiums isn't so certain however with the gap increasingly widening between top and bottom clubs.

There is a sense of achievement to completing any collection and it may surprise you how many fans collect stadium visits. It is seen as a badge of honour to visit all the grounds in your league, and especially all 92 professional teams. It's called ground hopping.

Football Teams Facts and Trivia

Have you ever wondered where 1860 Munich got their name from? Well they were founded in 1860 making them one of the oldest clubs in the world still playing today. See a full list of the oldest football clubs from the UK and abroad.

Although we tend to focus on the founder members and the oldest football teams, what about the youngest. We've got the top ten newest English professional teams along with some of the most high profile protest clubs formed as a result of various disagreements.

Most modern football fixtures in Europe are rather serene affairs with largely friendly chants and little segregation. There are however some games that make the blood boil more than ever and there is no better place to look than a derby game to find the worst culprits.

We often don't think much about where clubs train but as this is where teams spend most of their working lives it can have a major impact on the football a team produces. Read about training complexes and facilities used by professional football clubs around the world.

The ownership of football clubs in England often grabs the headlines. The way some newspapers report it you would think football teams were 100% foreign owned. This is not the case, read our article to find out who owns your favourite teams and how much of English football is foreign owned.

The Premier League is the richest football league in the world and this means it attracts a lot of foreign investment, but is this a good thing. We look at foreign ownership in English football and compare this to other major European leagues to see what the actual story is.

Long gone are the days of measly pay and wage caps in top level football. Today the worlds best players can take home in excess of £15,000,000 a year in salary, that's a long way compared to the £20 a week wage cap in place in the late 1950's.

Finishing your career in your mid-30's is not a problem most of us have but for footballers what do you do with the next 40 years or so? We've taken a look at the most popular jobs post retirement for top footballers from punditry to coaching.

Player transfers in top level football has reached simply crazy levels in recent decades. Discover the origins of the modern transfer markets, find out what a Bosman ruling is and where it came from and how transfer windows work.

From Manchester United and Liverpool, Celtic and Rangers to Palmeiras and Corinthians and Brazil and Argentina, football is full of great rivalries. Read about the biggest rivals as well as the teams that everyone seem to love and those everyone seem to hate.

Have you ever wondered where this weird modern trend for big cuddly and sometimes outrageous mascots comes from. Well before the Muppets and Sesame Street most clubs didn't have official mascots and many that did used real animals, usually dogs. How things have changed.

Today when a team moves stadium it is big news. Moves these days need to be heavily financed and published in advance. Way back when however clubs would move around for fun with teams like QPR having called no less than fourteen different grounds home over the years.

Remember in 1998 when Betfred paid out on Manchester United to win the league and they only went and lost it to Arsenal? We look at the biggest points comebacks in football history in England and abroad. It's never over until the fat lady sings so they say.

What are the nicknames for your football team? Where do all the weird and wonderful football team nicknames come from and how do they stick with supporters. What is the reason Sunderland are called the Black Cats or Bolton Wanderers are called the Trotters?

Find out what the home and away kit colours are for all the football teams we list on this site. On our football kit page you can also discover the history of modern football kit colours including famous examples and major reasons why kit different colours are needed.

The modern game is so different to what it used to be and most top clubs no longer rely on gate receipts and match day revenue as their major money earner. Fins out about the major revenue streams in football today at all levels.

Football anthems have been very much part British football for decades, with many clubs adopting songs in the music revolution of the 1950's and 60's. What are the most famous football club anthems and ultimately why do fans sing them at all?

General Football Facts and Trivia

It is the one thing the game could never do without, the ball. Often overlooked this key piece of kit wasn't always a sleek engineered design, find out the history of the football, how the design has changed and how we settled on a standard size and shape.

You would think talking about a corner flags would be a boring as watching paint dry, surprisingly that is not the case. It turns out the history of the corner flag, the shape of it and other celebrations and controversies using it, are far more interesting than you may have imagined.

Today we take it for granted that most games will see substitutes used, even if just to waste time. Of course for most of footballing history substitutes were not used or very limited. Find out how rules on substitutes in football have changed and what changes we may expect in the future.

Could you imagine a football pitch without an 18 yard box or a half-way line? The modern football pitch layout we see today wasn't always the same, find out how markings on football pitches came about, how they have evolved and who sets the rules when it comes to sizes and dimensions.

Despite common belief the word soccer actually arose in England as a way to discriminate Rugby Football from Association Football, soccer is a slang form of the word 'association'. In modern times the word has become an Americanism, find out why.

We are not talking about those illegal dodgy internet streams more about where can you actually go and see live football for free. We know you can go down the park and watch the local Sunday League team but are there any ways of watching top level footy for nothing

Modern top level football players can earn money from numerous sources in addition to their already astronomical salaries. What are the most common ways that players get their wage, from writing autobiographies and sponsorship to TV punditry and savvy investments.

We take the indirect free kick in football for granted as part of the game but do you really know what they are awarded for and where the rule came from? Did you know for example that free kicks for back-passes, offside and dissent are all indirect?

Football Rules and Regulations

You might have noticed that not all football pitches have the same dimensions. In fact the rules that govern pitch size allow for quite a large range of sizes so long as the aspect ratio is maintained. Even kids pitches comes with size rules.

The football blackout was brought in to protect match attendances and to prevent fans choosing to watch top level football over going to a lower league game. In the modern day this has become rather arbitrary but is still enforced.

Have you ever thought when the first football matches were refereed? The job, rules and qualifications required have changed hugely over the years to what is now a high profile, high pressure job. Now we've got assistants (not linesmen), fourth officials and more to contend with.

Football is always last to adopt new sports technologies. Hawk eye had been in use in Tennis for nearly 15 years before the technology was first used in football. The use of VAR however is not all rosy and many see the video referee in football as damaging to the basic ethos of the game.

We are all used to seeing the words "non-transferable" on our tickets, but what does this really mean? Anyone who goes the match regularly will have sold a ticket on before but where do you actually stand legally? Find out about legalised touts and third party sellers.

Can you imagine a time before offside? Well it took while to get the rule nailed down and many would even argue it's not quite right even today. There is more history than you might think behind offside, maybe people have a point that is is too complicated?

Professional football games are rarely called off during the match these days but it does still happen. Whether it's the weather, safety or having too many players sent off find out what the rules are and what happens next.

Similarly matches are rarely postponed for things like the weather any more but with modern clubs trying to cram more fixtures than ever into a season it does still happen quite a lot. On a couple of occasions postponements have had a big impact on the end of the season.

In the old days you needed to take someones head off to get a ban in football. Modern football is very different however with many sanctions now in place both on field and off field. Read about common bans and famous examples of some of the more bizarre bans.

Bans for whole football clubs are fairy rare but they do happen. In our article we look at what bans mean for teams, why clubs get banned and some high profile examples of match fixing and safety issues in the past that have led to bans for clubs around the world.

Football is lauded as simple game, and it it, the problem is there are too many people in institutions, like FIFA constantly, trying to fix something that isn't broken. Over the years we've seen many ideas come and go from silver goals to kick-ins and American penalties.

Football History

A comprehensive look at the origins of football from the Chinese military game called Tsu' Chu to what we know today as the modern game. We look at the development and changes of rules, the formation of the football league and we show you at a timeline of football over time.

In the mid to late 1800's football was highly unstructured with many competing leagues and rule variations. In 1888 Aston Villa director, William McGregor, began the process of organising the first professional football league with 12 founder members, English football never looked back.

When you look at the modern game it would surprise many to learn how just how chaotic the origins of the FA was. The FA formed in 1863 but prior to this several competing organisations threatened to fracture the game in England before it had barely begun.

The older folks among us will remember the Home Championship, an annaul international competition between England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. First played in 1883 it lasted for nearly 100 years and was once the biggest national competition many years before the World Cup arrived.

When your beloved club moves stadium for many fans it can be a deeply emotional time, the feeling of loss is somewhat like losing a pet or even a family member. If your looking for some nostalgia visit this page where we keep all the guides from our closed stadiums.

Go back 100 years or so and you'd be lucky to find a seat in a British football stadium, only the richest could afford to sit down, the rest of the fans stood in often packed terraces. A series of disasters and safety issues led to all seater stadiums, although standing may be coming back.

Floodlights are a necessity in the modern sport and this means these days we can watch all sorts of games and events at any time of day. This of course wasn't always the case and in fact to begin there was battle over their use in football.

In the early days it really was jumpers for goalposts, early football pitches could be formed on the local park, the farm, anywhere with a bit of green basically. Now we have under-soil heating, artificial turf and even professional teams of staff to look after the grass.

Anyone who watches top class football would be disgusted if the game was called off these days for a frozen pitch. This wasn't always the case, prior to 1960 it was a common occurrence to have a game called off during the winter months, find out about the history of undersoil heating.

Football Controversies

Wherever there is money there is corruption and with football being the richest and most wide spread sport on the planet it has seen its fair share of dodgy people and organisations. We cover everything from historical abuses to the recent FIFA scandal.

Football is a hard game to fix, especially with just one player or official. This doesn't mean people haven't tried many times, in this article we look at the history of fixing, high profile incidents as well as the future.

It may be controversial for some but whether you like it or not the gambling industry and football are tightly linked in the UK. It wasn't always this way however, the rise of online betting and sponsorship has seen bookmakers and casinos dominate, is this a good thing or not?

Football Club and Stadium Firsts

There is little debate about the oldest footy ground still open today, it is Bramall Lane home of Sheffield United. The stadium didn't start out hosting the beautiful game but it did play an integral role in bringing the rival football associations of the time together.

With cricket and early rugby being the national game back in the late 1800's it was logical the first ever football matches were played on rugby and cricket pitches. By the end of the century however football took over with dedicated stadiums.

There is a lot of debate around the origins of the game of football and in particular when the first recognised professional matches was played. Find out about the long running debates around who scored the first goal and more.

The question of which was the first ever football team is kind of dependent on when and where you think football began. We look at the first ever football teams under Cambridge Rules, Sheffield Rules and the Football Association Rules.

In the early days football was the poor relation playing matches on pitches of other sports such as Rugby and Cricket. The formation of the football league changed all that with clubs like Everton rapidly building stands to capitalise on the new working class craze.

Players weren't always bought and sold for more money that the cost of a small yacht. Find out the history of player signings, who were the first players signed for money and who was the first £100 and million pound player.

For a very long time it was very difficult for foreign players to play for British football clubs, rules meant that players had to be resident for over two years before they could play. New EU rules in the 1970's changed the game forever by removing these rules.

Football Stadium Disasters

Stadiums these days are safer than they've ever been before but unfortunately it took us far too long to learn from history with many disasters repeating themselves with similar narratives across the world. Find out the biggest disaster and their major causes.

The Hillsborough disaster was not the biggest in terms of death toll or damage but it is certainly the biggest stadium disaster in the hearts and minds of the British public. Read about the harrowing events that happened in the FA Cup semi final between Liverpool and Notts Forrest.

The fire at Bradford's Valley Parade stadium in 1985 remains as the worst ever fire disaster in English football history. On that day 56 innocent supporters lost their lives in a horrific way when all they had tried to do is watch a football game.

Following nearly seven years of virtually no football during the second world war it is understandable why more supporters than expected turned up at a FA Cup 6th round replay between Bolton Wanders and Stoke at Burden Stadium in 1946.

There could not be a more high profile game than a European Cup final to have a stadium disaster. Heysel, then the Belgium national team stadium, was chosen to host the final between Liverpool and Juventus where the collapse of a wall resulted in 39 deaths.

What should have been a very straight forward qualifying game for the Olympic Games between Peru and Argentina turned into the worst stadium disaster in football. Following a disallowed goal fans clashed with police resulting in a crush that killed 328 people.

Since Ibrox opened in 1899 it has seen several tragic disasters. In 1902 during a Scotland v England match attended by 68,000 people the back of a new stand collapses resulting in the death of 25. Then in 1971 a crush at an Old Firm derby killed two innocent fans.